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Friday, September 4, 2009

Weekly Report (Two for the price of one!)

We still aren't up to full speed and a firm routine yet, but I feel like we might get there sometime soon. This past week, two weeks really, there have been complications with appointments and odd schedule busters. As I gather my thoughts for this post, though, I see that we managed to accomplish a few things after all!

Cullen is reading his first chapter book all on his own. (We've sometimes alternated pages of a book in the past.) The Sword in the Tree has been an exciting tale that ties in with our history studies of the Middle Ages.

We read about the last days of the Roman Empire through the beginning of life in Medieval times, especially enjoying making fancy letters with calligraphy markers like the monks who copied and illuminated manuscripts. I have fallen in love with this book!

Science was a little light with reading and a few activities on insects and arachnids. Cullen firmly declined any offer on my part to help him catch a few critters to bring inside. He's like his Dad that way!

We completed our overview of the 50 states. Here's a pic of Cullen's map that he filled in as we went along. He had the hardest time coming to grips with the fact that the two-letter state abbreviations were all capital letters. That goes against everything he believes about capitalization, and he strongly disagrees with the practice! He did finally agree to go along with the rest of the country, despite his objections, and make both letters upper case.

He finished up Singapore 2A Math this week, did plenty of timed addition fact drills (He loves the stopwatch!) and watched some video segments of cool math concepts on our Mathtacular dvd from Sonlight.

Our Language Arts included Spelling, (which he loves,) writing in his journal, (which he fights, but is usually proud of in the end,) working in his Aesop's Fables workbook from Royal Fireworks Press and a little in a Spectrum LA workbook. He wrote Thank You notes for birthday gifts received a few weeks ago, too. The highlight of the past two weeks of school work for Cullen has been discovering his new favorite word game - Mad Libs. He literally begs to do these. It is a great way to review and reinforce parts of speech in an absolutely goofy way, and believe me, he does take it to the limits of goofiness!

He is enjoying and learning with our Bible Explorers study. I was a little worried about the format, but it works well for him as a short daily lesson.

Wednesdays have chess class and a fun clay class; Mondays always have gymnastics and Cub Scouts to look forward to. The composer we are focusing on this month is Vivaldi, one of my own favorites. Cullen, predictably, thinks that he doesn't even come close to Beethoven, but did agree to listen a little anyway. (Maybe I should have saved Beethoven's Fifth till last!)

About Me

Worth the click!

My cousin and friend, Jamie, whose blog is a really fun place, is featuring adoption stories from time to time. Whether you have adopted, are considering it or even if you know it's not for you, these are moving and inspiring stories.

Followers

Wise Words

"Do not train children to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each." ~Plato

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6

Of all the joyous motives of school life, the love of knowledge is the only abiding one; the only one which determines the scale, so to speak, upon which the person will hereafter live.